Hair clip



HAIR CLIP Filed Jan. 27, 1945 INVENTOR v LEONA T P1. u/ 1T25E -40: ATTORNEY Patented Oct. 29, 1946 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 3 Claims.

It is among the objects of my invention to provide a hair clip with a broad gripping surface which will hold a curl of hair securely in place while the hair dries and without danger of premature release. Another object is the provision of a hair clip which after its removal leaves the hair free of unsightly ridges in the curl to which it was applied. Still another object is to provide a hair clip which will accome modate itself to the varying thicknesses of portions of the underlying curl.

My invention possesses other objects and features of value, some of which with the foregoing will be set forth in the following description of the invention. It is to be understood that I do not limit myself to the showing made by the said description and the drawing and I may adopt variant forms of the invention within the scope of the appended claims.

Referring to the drawing: Figure 1 is a plan View of my hair clip; and Figure 2 is a side elevation of the same. Both views are drawn to an enlarged scale.

In modern hair styling it is a common practhe to coil strands of wet hair about the tip of the finger to form a curl; and then secure it in curled shape with hairpins or other means. After all the hair has been so curled and pinned, it is allowed to dry. The ringlets so formed are then combed into waves, or over a pad to form a pompadour or other hair style, or simply loosened slightly to leave natural-looking ringlets around the head. Very often the pins used to secure the hair make ridges and depressions in .the curls which spoil the shape of the waves, or

complicate the dressing of the hair in other styles.

The hair clip of my invention is designed to avoid this difiiculty by providing two highly resilient and opposed members; one a nearly straight pin, and the other, a broader but discontinuous base or seat upon which the pin presses the curl of hair caught between them. This structure is conveniently formed of a single piece of spring wire preferably of fiat section, and bent to provide a pin 2, and the arm 3, joined to the pin by the bend 4. At its other end, the arm is bent to provide a flat spiral coil 5, constituting the seat of the clip. The coil preferably has a curvature which is substantially that of an involute.

The flat spiral seat lies close to and adjacent the end of the pin, which at this portion is curved slightly away from the plane of the coil as shown in Figure 2. Because of the length and resiliency of the wire forming the coil, it provides a seat, the different areas of which are separately and softly yieldable, so that an even, gentle, holding pressure is applied to the curl of hair caught between the pin and coil. A curl of hair will vary in thickness at different points across its width, so that two straight resilient members extending across the strands apply pressure only on the thicker portion, leaving much of the curl unsecured. With my special coil construction, each separate turn yields more or less independently to accommodate itself to the varying thicknesses of the strands of hair in the curl held under the pin. Thus a perfect curl results with no objectionable ridges or irregularities.

A very common failure of the so-called bobblepin is that its spring action is destroyed and its ability to hold a curl is lost if a curl should be a little too thick. This is avoided in my clip because the coil construction extends the resiliency of the structure over a much greater length of material so that stresses are distributed and not concentrated at one point or short turn. This permits heavy or uneven curls to be accommodated between the seat and the overlying pin with only a small part of the distortional stresses carried by the pin and the curved part 4 where the pin turns back upon itself.

The end 6 of the pin extends a short distance beyond the edge of the coil; and as shown in Figure 2 is turned away from the plane of the coil. This construction facilitates the placing of the clip over a curl by picking up the strands of hair on the projecting part of the pin before they are allowed to pass under the turns of the seat.

While my hair clip may be formed of spring metal having a circular cross section, I prefer to use a flat strip, the width of the strip in the coil extending in the plane of the coil. The number of complete turns in the coil may vary, but not less than two nor more than four coils of a flat strip give satisfactory results.

I claim:

1. A hair clip comprising a single flat resilient strip, one end of the strip forming a flat spiral coil, and the other end extending radially in the plane of the coil and then back across the coil.

2. A hair clip for holding a curl of hair comprising a resilient wire turned back upon itself in a close U-shape, one end of the wire constituting a flat resilient substantially involute coil completely overlying the opposing free end of the wire and spaced from the turn in the wire.

3. A hair clip for holding a curl of hair comprising a resilient wire turned back upon itself in a close U-shape, one end of the wire constituting a flat resilient substantially involute coil of a diameter about one-half the length of the opposing portion of the Wire and overlying the outer half of the opposing portion.

LEONA T. PLUMTREE. 

